Quote from Pray While You’re Prey: “If we are among those chosen by God to have eternal life, our goal should be to please God and to be obedient. It is not easy, but it is also not impossible.”

When I was in high school, I had three friends with whom I was very close. We were, in fact best friends, from the beginning of freshman year. At some point during my junior year, though, those friends decided that they no longer wanted to be friends with me. Looking back, I can see what lead to this decision, but, at the time, I just felt betrayed, hurt and abandoned. In the weeks after turning their backs on me, two of the three friends, asked for forgiveness and we reconciled. Though, we remain close throughout the rest of high school, our relationships were never the same, and shortly after high school, we lost touch. The reason our relationship was not the same on my end is because I never felt like I could totally be myself or totally trust that I would not lose my friends again. I would hold back certain opinions about their actions. I would dampen certain aspects of my personality because I did not want to feel the hurt I had felt again. The way I was treated by my friends pales in comparison to the many ways I have betrayed God. Though I have known the Lord for a very long time, there were several periods in my life when I turned my back on Him. In those times, I justified my actions because I felt angry with God that I had not gotten my way or I felt that my obedience was not rewarded, and therefore, was not worth it. I would throw bratty, hissy fits and just walk away from God. However, God never walked away from me. Each and every time I realized how foolish I was being, He welcomed me back into His arms. And, He didn’t hold anything back. Once I reconciled with God, He did not hold back His blessings and His favor. There were absolutely consequences for my disobedience because He did not hold back His chastisement and discipline either. You see, unlike us, God was not afraid to still be a good friend to me and to continue to give me all of Him. He was not afraid that I would leave again because He knew that my love for Him and His love for me would always bring me back. So, in return, it is my responsibility to show my love towards Him wholeheartedly, through obedience, holding nothing back. We are not stuck here on Earth feeling our way around in the dark. God has given us rules to abide by and boundaries to stay within because He loves us and wants the best for us. We owe God our all; our everything should belong to Him, including our love, which is shown through obedience. We must love God totally and hold nothing back. We cannot allow the influences of this world to cause us to be halfhearted towards God. No one in the world has given you or me a sacrifice like God has given us. It was a sacrifice that we did not even deserve. So, though, you may feel that you wish your life was in a different place right now, it is not an excuse to fail to give God your all. Don’t hold back.

Prayer Thank You, God for giving me boundaries and for giving structure to my life, so that I know what I must do. Please forgive me for being disobedient, for turning away from You and for the times when I am not fully and totally committed to Your will. Lord, please help me to keep Your commandments and to walk on the path that you have set out for me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

Pray While You’re Prey Weekly Devotions for Singles

Week Thirty EightNo One Else

Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people

Quote from Pray While You’re Prey: “I can only imagine how God feels when we act ashamed of Him or brush Him off, choosing things of this world over Him, because He definitely loves us and showed us the ultimate demonstration of love when he sacrificed His only Son.”

I am not sure when you are reading this, but I am writing it the night before Palm Sunday. Last week, I had writer’s block and could not think of anything encouraging to write; so, though I was frustrated about it, I decided that I should not write a devotion and try again this week. I did not want to just throw something together. I wanted to be inspired by God to write what people need to hear. So, I tried again today. I scrolled down the page to my planned topic for this week of the devotions and I saw No One Else. I immediately knew that I needed to write this on the weekend of Palm Sunday, which is celebrated the week prior to Resurrection Day (or as most people refer to it, Easter). Palm Sunday celebrates the time when Jesus was praised, about a week before those same people praising Him would shout, “Crucify Him!” Jesus, the blameless, Almighty, all-powerful, Son of God would be heralded as a savior one week and pay the ultimate sacrifice the next week. And, He chose to be that sacrifice despite the fact that the very people He came to save treated Him like garbage. But, let’s not be so haughty as to condemn those people before we look in the mirror and ask ourselves how we treat Jesus. This devotion series is not just about being content while you are single; it is about allowing yourself to be devoted to Christ. It is about finding comfort and solace in Him. Have you ever praised Jesus one week only to ignore Him the next? Perhaps, it did not even take a week. Maybe it was a few days or a few hours or, dare I say, just a few minutes. We, and I am including me, are quick to offer praise when Jesus is being who we think He should be. Yet, we are quick to question Him when the circumstances of our lives are not how we wish them to be. When we do that we are no different that the people who laid down palm branches to honor Him one day and spit on Jesus just a few days later. Jesus could have said, “Daddy, I don’t want to do this.” Make no mistake about this, Jesus did not have to die for our sins. He showed a love that we cannot even fathom. He showed a love that NO ONE ELSE would dare show. Can you imagine dying for the people who treat you like dirt? I can’t, but Jesus did. He gave Himself as a ransom for you and me and for all people; for anyone who would accept Him as Lord and Savior. So, really examine your heart. Do you appreciate that no one else has done for you what Jesus did? No boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other or spouse could even come close to that kind of love. So, shouldn’t we be more desperate to get close to the One who died for us than we are for our human relationships. It is not that relationships are bad. I will be so grateful when God sends me my forever husband, but I cannot forget His sacrifice because no one else will ever love me that.

Prayer Thank You, God for Your Son, Jesus Christ, the One and Only mediator. Please forgive me for taking Your Sacrifice for granted and complaining or thinking that You don’t love me because I don’t get my way. Lord, please help me to always remember Your loving gift at Calvary’s cross and to Honor You above all others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

Scripture: Proverbs 14:26-27 Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.

Quote from Pray While You’re Prey: “I do not speak of fear in the sense of being scared, but in the sense of reverence and respect. Reverence and respect for God and God’s Word lead to strong confidence, refuge, contentment, and salvation from death.”

My dad has a booming voice. Small children are often afraid when he speaks in his “Mufasa” voice. For a lot of my life, it was that voice that kept me out of trouble. Not wanting to hear the disappointment in my father’s voice or not wanting to hear the discipline in my father’s voice was the cause for many decisions that I made in my life. I did not and do not fear my father, but he commands such authority that I do have an incredible level of respect for his opinion and his guidance. Even though, when little children hear that big, booming voice, it scares the bejeezes out of them, they also know that the man behind that voice will protect them and care for them. There have been many occasions when I have seen my niece and nephews go from crying because my dad raised his voice to cuddling up in his lap of safety in a matter of seconds. It is because the voice may be scary, but the children innately know that behind that big voice is an even bigger heart that truly cares about their well-being. It is the same with our relationship with God. If you read the Bible, and see how God dealt with disobedience, especially in the Old Testament, you might be fearful of Him. But, the proper response is to be obedient because of reverence for God. We should listen to His commands for our lives because we respect that He knows what is best. When we come to that place of reverence and respect, then God can keep us safe. When we surrender to His Will, we can lay at His feet and just worship without having a concern for any calamity or uncertainty that may surround our lives. This is the kind of fear that leads to safety. If you ever watch scary movies, you will see that when people are being chased and are scared, they sometimes make irrational decisions that put them in more danger. For example, they run up stairs or into woods. This is not the type of fear that God desires for us to have of Him. He wants us to have a respectful fear of Him. He does not want us to be so scared that we jump into irrational decisions and unnatural situations. He wants us to allow Him to guide us into His safety. He wants us to experience our best lives the lives He has planned for us.

Prayer Thank You, God for being a God whom I can love and respect. Please forgive me for allowing irrational fear to cloud my judgment. Lord, please help me to know that there is safety in Your arms and that You will always lead me on the best path. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

Scripture: Matthew 23:26 First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Quote from Pray While You’re Prey: “Jesus Christ was proof that we could be human and not be filthy. Jesus Christ was proof that we could be blameless and clean.”

When I was younger, my mom gave me and my siblings different chores to do. First and foremost, our rooms had to be clean. We have to have our beds made, our clothes picked up, and all of our toys and what not put away before we could even think about asking to go outside and play or hang out with our friends. In addition, we had our weekend chores. My chores included cleaning one of the bathrooms and dusting. Plus, we took turns doing the dishes. I hated doing chores, but, since my parents paid me an allowance (and all of the other household bills), I had to do my part to take care of the house. But, I vowed that when I had my own home, I would not make my bed every day. When I was younger and I wanted to play, but didn’t feel like thoroughly cleaning my room, I would just make my bed, and then, shove things under the bed and in the closet to make it look like I had done my chores. Unfortunately for me, both of my parents were Navy veterans, so I rarely got away with it. Many of us try to dress up our outside while completely ignoring our inside and we call it cleaning up our lives. We make sure that we say the right things, hang out with the right people, and get caught doing the right activities. But, what is the use of looking clean on the outside when you are dirty on the inside? Surely, we will all make mistakes because none of us are perfect. Still, we need to make every effort to clean up the messes in our lives. A season of singleness is a fantastic time to do so. The single season is the perfect time to really focus on ourselves; not for the purpose of being selfish, but for the purpose of being more like Christ. We can go to our Father and ask Him to reveal to us the dirty places in our lives that we have hidden so well that we forgot they were there. I have to warn you, though, if you ask God for this, you must be prepared to be shocked. Every time I think I am all cleaned up, I ask God to show my where I am falling short. And, when I do so, it is usually because I am fully confident that I have little to no dirty areas. But, oh my! God will place some people and some situations in your life to reveal the dirt that is still lingering well beneath the surface. I don’t know about anyone else, but when God does bless me with a mate, I want to be the best person that I can be. Actually, if God never sends me a mate, I still want to be the best I can be for Him. Has this ever happened to you? You’re super thirsty, so you go to the cabinet and pull out a cup. You fill the cup with your favorite drink, take a couple of sips and then look in the cup and find some gunk the dishwasher left behind. The cup sure looked clean from the outside, but none of that matters if there is some nastiness on the inside. The same goes for us. We must all make sure that we are clean inside and God gave us a perfect example and a perfect sacrifice to be sure that we could be.

Prayer Thank You, God for sending Your Son to be an example of how to truly live a clean life. Please forgive me for trying to cover up the dirt in my life, as if you are not omniscient. Lord, please help me to never be haughty enough to think that there is not something inside of me that can be cleaner. In Jesus’ Name, Amen